Archive | Religious Freedom

July 18, 2017 — 09:57 — Update: 10:23 The history of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia, illustrated in the museum of the Russian administrative center of Jehovah’s Witnesses based in the town of Solnechnoye Alexander Demianchuk / TASS Russia’s Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal to reverse its decision declaring the Jehovah’s Witnesses an “extremist” […]

By Victoria Arnold, Forum 18 Russia has summarily suspended most Jehovah’s Witness activities. UN Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai told Forum 18: “The Russian government is claiming that the Jehovah’s Witnesses are an extremist group, but in fact it’s their move to ban them outright that appears to be extreme.” As Jehovah’s Witnesses await a Supreme […]

February 8, 2017 (JTA) — An American rabbi who has worked for the Chabad movement in Russia since 2002 said he and his family are facing deportation under a provision dealing with threats to national security. Ari Edelkopf, a father of seven who grew up in the United States and lived in Israel before settling in […]

Nina Achmatova The case is related to the Gideons mission who wanted to import sacred texts, according to the law. Customs in Vyborg, however, blocked the shipment claiming they wanted to verify the presence of extremist literature. Moscow (AsiaNews) – On 16 November in Vyborg, near St. Petersburg, the city court will hold a hearing […]

Nina Achmatova The decision of the Russian authorities on Black Sea peninsula sparks debate. The Crimea is adapting to Russian legislation, which recognizes only ‘traditional’ Buddhism, Judaism, Orthodoxy and Islam. Moscow (AsiaNews) – After a year and a half of discussions, the Russian authorities in Crimea – Ukrainian peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, following […]

Lorraine Caballero 05 October, 2016 12:10 PM An American pastor’s ministry in Russia is facing its end after he was charged with violating the country’s anti-evangelism law under its new anti-terror legislation. Donald Ossewaarde, 55, is the first American who has been charged under Russia’s new anti-terror laws. The “Yarovaya” legislation has a […]

By Victoria Arnold, Forum 18 News Service Over four months between May and August, 37 cases were brought to punish individuals and religious communities across Russia for exercising freedom of religion or belief in public spaces under Administrative Code Article 20.2, Forum 18 News Service has found. One community was fined after members offered religious […]

Rights in Russia: Week-ending 23 October 2015 [see also attachment] Rights in Russia: September 2015 [see also attachment] Comment Liudmila Alekseeva on World Food Day Aleksei Simonov: “It’s important to shout out loud enough that the emperor has no clothes, so that both emperor and crowd can hear” HRO.org in English Political prisoner Oleg Navalny describes conditions […]

Notwithstanding the old adage that behind every great man there stands a great woman, too many great men forget to acknowledge the women who walked with them in the wilderness and who shared the struggle in the days before the glory. Not so Isi Leibler, a former president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, […]